1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an assembly of at least one plate-shaped data carrier and a box-shaped storage device therefor according to the preamble of claim 1. Such an assembly is known from British patent application 2 154 550.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this known assembly the storage device comprises covers joined to a spine by parallel hinges, a holder being fixed to said spine. The hinges permit initial opening of one of the covers relative to said spine about a hinge, after which the spine moves with the cover about the other hinge, so that the holder is raised away from the other cover, thus presenting the contents thereof. The covers and the spine are defined by a single sheet. A pair of parallel grooves is formed, by scoring, in one face of the sheet to define said hinges. The spine is defined between said hinges.
Each cover is reinforced by a rectangular frame molded onto the sheet, each frame extending along the edges of each cover, except for the edge defined by one of the hinges. The holder is molded onto the spine of the sheet and is provided with receiving means, receiving the compact disc and gripping this lightly along a circumferential edge thereof. Preprints may be provided on the outer face of the sheet before molding the frames and the holder onto the sheet.
In this known storage device the receiving means are provided by a pocket-like holder having two sidewalls enclosing a groove there between, which extends over an enclosed angle of more than 180.degree.. The said walls are interconnected by side walls on either side, defining at each free end of said groove clamping projections. When the compact disc is inserted into said receiving means the clamping projections extend above the centerline of the compact disc, such that the compact disc is forced into said groove.
This known storage device has the disadvantage that the said sidewalls have to extend on both sides of the circumferential edge of the compact disc, in order to position the clamping means in said position. Thus, the storage device has to be substantially wider than the compact disc. Furthermore, in this known storage device the compact disc is only clamped near said clamping projections, thus providing room for the compact disc to move inside said groove, whereby the stored compact disc can be damaged. Moreover, such storage device necessitates relatively large amounts of plastic and relatively long production times, which render such storage device relatively costly. Moreover, positioning a compact disc into this known storage device as well as removing such is rather difficult, due to said clamping directions by said clamping means.
A further assembly of at least one plate-shaped data carrier and a box-shaped storage device therefore is known from European patent application 0 420 350.
In the storage device in the known assembly, the first closing part is box-shaped, provided with a bottom and raised walls. The second closing part is cover-shaped and can be closingly fitted against the first closing part. The first closing part is provided, adjacent a central area thereof, with resilient fingers arranged in circular form and extending from the bottom, which fingers can engage through a central opening of the data carrier to retain the data carrier within the walls in a position approximately parallel to the bottom face mentioned. Hence, when the cover-shaped second closing part is being closed over the first closing part, the data carrier is stored within the storage device so as to be protected against influences from outside. After the first closing part has been swivelled aside, the data carrier can be removed from the known storage device by engaging the data carrier at the circumferential edge thereof, pressing the resilient fingers at least partially away in the direction of the center of the circle formed thereby and pulling the data carrier away from the resilient fingers in a direction at right angles to the bottom face. When the data carrier is being positioned, it is simply pressed with its central opening over the resilient fingers, which, accordingly, are temporarily pressed away to allow the data carrier to pass.
This known storage device has a number of drawbacks. For instance, in the known storage device, only data carriers can be stored that are provided with a central opening. Moreover, it is not easy to remove from the resilient fingers such a data carrier disposed thereon. There is little space for engaging the circumferential edge and, moreover, the data carrier should be gripped with one hand, while the resilient fingers are pressed away with the other hand, so that always two hands are required for removing the data carrier. This moreover involves a great chance that the user touches the data-carrying part of the data-carrying part of the data carrier, so that damages may be caused thereto. Further, the resilient fingers should be on the one hand sufficiently flexible to allow the data carrier to pass, and on the other sufficiently stiff to be able to retain the data carrier. Because of this combination of requirements, the freedom of choice of material for the relevant first closing part wherein the resilient fingers are integrally formed is considerably limited to relatively costly materials. Further, the resilient fingers are not sufficiently durable to enable a long and repeated use thereof. When the fingers break off, the data carrier can no longer be properly secured, which renders the storage device unusable.